Global

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand has built what's described as the
biggest industrial-scale medical marijuana facility in Southeast Asia
with 12,000 plants, and will soon allow everyone to grow six cannabis
plants "in their back gardens like any other herb."

Recreational use remains illegal with punishments including
imprisonment. Enthusiasts hope the disappearing resistance to
marijuana's medical use will result in looser laws for public
enjoyment and business profits.

Those changes appear to be gaining momentum.

Government officials on September 2  attended a ceremony in northern
Thailand's Chiang Mai where Maejo University researchers planted
12,000 new marijuana sprouts.

The promising shoots are inside a newly built 32,722-square-foot
(3,040-square-meter) greenhouse with controls for temperature,
moisture and light.

Seeds for the 12,000 plants were provided by the government's
Department of Medical Service.

Officials expect the plants will produce medical-grade cannabis
flowers and buds within six months.

Jonathan Shapiro’s Sisters In Law (based on the cleverly titled 2015 book by Linda Hirshman) is about the U.S. Supreme Court’s first two female justices and their relationship on and off the bench. In an irony of history rightwinger Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman to sit on the high court. Stephanie Faracy portrays Sandra Day O’Connor like the screen version of Doris Day wearing robes. The Arizonan comes across as a not too bright all American gal and goody two shoes, who really doesn’t stand up for what is right.

On the other hand, Clinton Supreme Court appointee Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Tovah Feldshuh) is a feisty East Coast Jew with a lifelong devotion to equal rights for women. If O’Connor is one of those people who go along to get along (for instance, according to the play she waffled on abortion rights), Ginsburg is cut more in the crusader mold and perceived as being “pushy.” (Which, as she correctly points out, is code for an anti-Semitic trope - calling Jews “pushy” is like labeling Blacks “uppity”).

The Passage of California’s Controversial Senate Bill 276 Reveals that PharmacoFascism is Alive and Well

(Minnesota’s legislators, just like state and federal legislators everywhere, are universally vaccinology illiterate; they are hungry for campaign donations; and big pharma’s lobbyists are there to accommodate them)

Below is a list of Big Pharma-bribed California Democratic Party lawmakers (none of whom recused themselves from voting for the SB276 bill due to their blatant conflicts of interest!). Also listed is the amount of money they had accepted from multinational drug companies or their lobbying groups:

The list was published in an important article that was written by Sayer Ji, founder of GreenmedInfo.com. Read the full article at:

https://greenmedinfo1.ontraport.com/e/XOA/6gLNO/7JT/zFP2CccvlQ

The delightful computer-animated feature Abominable is one of those rare movies that will enchant adults and children alike. Set mostly or entirely in present day China, the 97 minute movie about an Abominable Snowman starts out in Shanghai then embarks on a road trip throughout the People’s Republic. Various destinations in the “Middle Kingdom” are vividly brought alive via exquisite, eye-popping, jaw-dropping animation.

Abominable is a co-production of Dreamworks and Shanghai-based Pearl Studio - the two studios previously collaborated on the 2016 3D computer-animated Kung Fu Panda 3. With its Eastern locales and predominantly Asian cast, one could say that SoCal-based Dreamworks is “pandering” to Chinese ticket buyers in the world’s most populous country, where what appears to be a form of state capitalism has produced an enormous urban middle class with disposable income.

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been fooled.”-- Carl Sagan: "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection"

Further below is the final draft ofNational Security Presidential Directive 9 (NSPD-9): Defeating the Terrorist Threat to the United Stateswhose first draft had been authored by President George W. Bush’s National Security Team. It had been sent to him one week before 9/11/01 - on September 4, 2001!!

This originality-loving Rampy gets grumpy when mediocre productions are repurposed from one medium to another in order to exploit brand name recognition, maximize profit by re-using the same content, etc. I hate today’s remake/redo/sequel syndrome from one medium to another by unoriginal copycats. Having gotten that out of my system, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the West Coast premiere of Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, which re-works the 1993 star-studded movie comedy (followed up by that inevitable sequel in 1995) which reunited that Odd Couple, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, with Ann-Margret, along with original music performed live by an orchestra, composed by Neil Berg, lyrics by Nick Meglin and book by Dan Remmes for the stage version.

“Psychiatry has been almost completely bought out by the drug companies…We're so busy with drugs that you can't find a nickel being spent on [non-drug] research.”– Dr Loren Mosher

Psychiatrist Loren Mosher (who earned medical degrees from both Harvard and Stanford) was the highly esteemed founder of the experimental Soteria Project, which was subtitled “Community Alternatives for the Treatment of Schizophrenia” from 1971 to 1983. The Soteria Project proved that patients with first-onset psychotic breaks could be successfully treated - even cured - outside insane asylums by non-professional caregivers, in unlocked neighborhood facilities and without the coercive use of neurotoxic, dependency-inducing and dementia-inducing drugs.

Five years before his untimely death in 2004, and long after he was hounded out of the NIMH and mainstream psychiatry for doing the right thing, Dr Mosher wrote:

Former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden (R) and incumbent U.S. Vice President Mike Pence (L) share a moment during a mock swearing-in ceremony for U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) at the Old Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol January 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

When Joe Biden told an audience that Mike Pence "is a decent guy," Pence had already been vice president for more than two years. After the comment drew fierce criticism, Biden responded that he'd said it "in a foreign policy context"—an odd effort at damage control, given that Pence has publicly backed every one of President Trump's countless abhorrent policies, whether foreign or domestic.

It has been satisfying to note the significant response to two recent climate campaigns: the actions, including the recent Global Climate Strike, initiated by school students inspired by Greta Thunberg and the climate actions organized by Extinction Rebellion.

While delighted that these campaigns have finally managed to mobilize significant numbers of people around the existential threat the climate catastrophe poses to life on Earth, I would like to briefly raise some issues for consideration by each of those involved in the climate movement as well as those considering involvement.

I do this because history provides clearcut and compelling lessons on how to make such movements have the impact we need and, so far, the climate movement is not doing several vital things if we are to indeed be successful. And I would like to be successful.

So here are five key issues that I would address as soon as possible.

1. Analyze the climate catastrophe within the context of the ongoing and broader environmental disaster that is currently taking place.